project life | may 2012

August 20, 2012

i may be a bit behind in posting my project life pages, but i am not behind in getting them done. i occasionally have to do a few weeks at a time, but it all comes together and i don’t feel overwhelmed because of two simple steps that i take.

1. i always name my photos with the date they were taken. i even do this with my iphone photos. (and i love that lightroom does this for me.) then i can just look at the photos for each week to pick which ones will end up in project life.

2. i write down what we did and funny stories everyday using the day one app for my mac and iphone. i don’t write a book. it only takes a minute to jot down a few quick notes about our day.

i would love to be able to sit down at the same time every week and work on project life, but i am a bit too busy living real life to make that happen. so, when i have time to work on project life i just open my calendar (which i have marked with each week’s dates), open my photos in lightroom and open my day one journal. it is all right in front of me. even if i have four weeks to catch up on (like i did the last time i had free time to work on project life), i can pull it all together very quickly.

i hope that this will encourage you to start or continue your own project life. it is simply the most rewarding, amazing and addictive photo journal project that i have ever done. one thing i keep reading from other people who also do project life is how much they still love it every week. it just doesn’t get old. i agree completely! and now that i am 32 weeks in, i can already see how much my boys are changing as i flip back through the pages from this year. and to think, i would have missed all these little bits + pieces of our everyday if it were not for project life.

do it. begin anywhere. start today. you will never regret the time you put into project life.

and now for a little catching up with some pages from may…

week 18: this week we celebrated mark’s birthday. quinn helped me make a birthday cake and put the candles on the cake. we also made a happy birthday sign for daddy. tate is having two year old temper tantrums. quinn helped make pizza and we did the march of dimes march for babies in honor of my niece, brooke, who was a preemie.

this is one of my favorite photos of mark and the boys singing happy birthday. i also included a screen shot of the rainy weather forecast for the week on my iphone.week 19: this week all about the everyday things we do. i went to quinn’s school for a mom’s brunch to celebrate mother’s day. i have started using some journaling cards that have quotes. i find free printables on pinterest and i just resize them in photoshop and print them on blank jouranling cards.

quinn colored a picture of kermit the frog and even made sure to make his collar a different color green. i scanned his coloring page and then added the text and had it printed as a 4×6 photo. and this photo of tate shows what he does with all of his cars every night at bedtime.week 20: this week included a bike ride, legos, storytime, a beach trip to visit friends and quinn’s preschool graduation (even though he is going back again for one more year it was still a big celebration for him).i made a 3×4 journaling card with a small instagram photo and a story about what quinn did to make me feel better when i had a headache. he made me hot tea and brought me some cookies and a flower. there is a close up shot of a star wars guy he drew on his arm – thankfully with washable markers. and i included a photo of quinn from his first and last day of preschool. what a difference 10 months makes.week 21: this week shows some of our summer fun and a photo that quinn took of me and tate. ah, my little photographer-in-training.i adore this photo of tate with his new short haircut and a little journaling on the card to explain just how he got this new look. i made a journaling card with a quote from quinn. the funny thing is that it is so darn hot outside, i can’t believe he was cold at any time. and there is a 3×4 photo of daddy, tate and his blue bike.week 22: this week was all about the staycation days as my family was on a trip to hawaii and we were escaping to their pools and grills for our own family fun.a 4×6 collage of instagram photos from the week and a photo of tate looking at our project life album.

i will share pages from june + july soon. there are lots of weeks packed in as i catch up, so i am going to post them a little at at time.

Jenn-I love reading your updates and seeing your pages. I’m now over a year in and still get emotional over how much I love this project.

Yesterday I was dragging my heels to get my photos ordered from the first week of August. We had a yucky week here that week and I literally took 5 photos all week, didn’t save any memorabilia and didn’t write anything down about what we did. I managed to salvage it and then was grateful that that’s the only time it happened in over a year that I’ve been doing it. I’m so much more intentional about photos and documenting the everyday since I started. I love it.

Andrea-You’ll be happy to know I’ve decided to do Project Life! I’m not going to start till later in the year when the kit I would like from Elise Joy is available. (Do you follow her blog? She announced that she designed a set for 2013!) Anyway, I’m excited about it all. Since you posted awhile back about how you do it all and remember things, I’ve downloaded Day One and keep track of little things that happen day to day. LOVE that app!
Love to see your Project Life updates!
Great idea to scan drawings, too!

Krystal L-Could you share how you create the instagram collage prints? I don’t have an iPhone so I’m trying to find something for an Android phone. I just received my first Project Life kit for my birthday so I’m excited to get started documenting my 40th year

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hello... i'm tracy. photographer, teller of stories and family documentarian. and right here is where i share little bits + pieces of my life.